Philip Seymour Hoffman: We lost a great actor, but he lost every hope he ever had.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: We lost a great actor, but he lost every hope he ever had.

Photo: Andrew Medichini, Associated Press

Ask Mick LaSalle: Best picture winning top Oscar? Not likely

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Dear Mick LaSalle: I really liked "The Wolf of Wall Street." You think it has a chance for best picture?

John Reid, Menlo Park

Dear John Reid: Not much of a chance. Best picture rarely goes to the best picture, except by accident. Also, it has to contend with "American Hustle," which appeals to the same audience. True, with ranked voting, members could give high ranks to both, but there's also the fact that "The Wolf of Wall Street" is pretty much a comedy, and a lot of people resent comedy. They laugh, but they're intimidated by it. Someone once said that laughter is an acknowledgment that the person who made you laugh is smarter than you are. Thus, the insecure have an investment in believing the opposite: that they laugh not because something is above them, but below.

Hello Mick: In your review of "Lone Survivor," I question why you chose not to discuss the ethical conundrum faced by the team when the village goat herders stumbled on their position. To my mind, the event is critical to the story.

Richard Spaete, Emerald Hills

Hello Richard: If I'm writing a movie review, I understand that I'm mainly writing it for people who haven't seen the movie, so talking about a critical story element is something I'll avoid. It's not like writing a book or an essay, where the idea is to say all that can be said. Still, I probably should have alluded to that scene. For sure, it's the best thing in the movie, because every day for about a week after, I kept thinking about it and trying to figure out what they could have done, besides the two extreme choices that they entertained.

Dear Mick: What do you think about the lack of soundtrack music during the pre-Code era?

Hi Dan: You're definitely not the only one, and that's understandable. But I don't feel that way for a number of reasons: First, he didn't want to die of a heroin overdose. He didn't want to die of a heroin overdose a lot more than you and I didn't want him to die of a heroin overdose. We can be mad or sad about it, but the truth is, the day he died, did we actually lose sleep? Were we sobbing? Did we not eat for days? Not me. It still bothers me that he's dead - it will bother me for a long time - but we have to be honest about the proportion this upset will actually take up in our daily lives. We lost a great actor. But he lost absolutely everything - his friends, his future, his children and every hope he ever had. Of course, he didn't want that. As for why he couldn't just stop, who knows? But I'm still lugging around the same 10 pounds I gained over the holidays. When I figure out a way to control myself, I'll concentrate on other people's lack of discipline. In the meantime, it's easier to just avoid the mirror as I get out of the shower.

Finally, and this is a little hard to articulate, but to be as great an actor as he was, you have to know something about life, which means you have to be curious about it, and not all curiosity is wholesome. For 20 years, we were the beneficiaries of the totality of Philip Seymour Hoffman's relentless inquisitiveness. Now we're the bereaved.

Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.